PNG Power Ltd

PNG Power Chief Executive Officer, Obed Batia denied recent claims that the Vanimo Power Station had caught fire yesterday morning destroying all its generators disrupting power supply in the township.

He said the news report is misleading and not true.

PNG Power switched-off the power station, following an unfortunate fire incident that started from the PNG Defence Force Forward Base, which shares the boundary with the power station and the fire quickly spread out to the power station yard.

The recent system power outages in Port Moresby are experienced due to technical issues between all generation power stations both at PNG Power and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

PPL in collaboration with IPP stakeholders are working to correct those issues with respect to grid control and regulation issues, in order to provide stable power.

When announcing the extension that runs until August 31, 2022 PPL urged all unregistered electricity consumers connected to the PNG Power grid without a meter, to go forward and register as new customers at their nearest PNG Power offices or call the toll free number 116.

With continuous power outage over the past months and a total outage that occurred yesterday at 3am with the Port Moresby Grid, was due to faults located on the transmission line at the Kanudi Power Station leaving residents in complete darkness.

Electricians worked tirelessly to restore power but went out again and was restored the second time at 6am yesterday.

The power supply was restored eventually to all Port Moresby sub-stations from Bomana, Waigani, Boroko, Konedobu and Kanudi and was fully restored by 8.30am yesterday.

Restoration time took longer than expected due to bad weather conditions and challenges on site. 

Tower 101 at Dumum Village in Chimbu Province was brought down to the ground by fallen trees intentionally chopped down by locals.

PNG Power Acting CEO, Obed Batia commended the operations team on the ground for working tirelessly over the last 7 days to ensure power supply was restored safely for PPL customers in the Highlands Region.

DataCo fibre optic services utilizing the same power supply infrastructure were also restored. 

PNG Power made this call after the act of sabotage on its tower 101 power pylon at Dumum Village, Chimbu Province disrupted power supply to the township and the upper highlands provinces.

Work on the restoration of power supply into the Upper Highlands Region is still ongoing as of Tuesday afternoon. 

PNG Power expects to have the work completed this afternoon and have full power supply restored to the Upper Highlands Region townships of Kundiawa, Minj, Banz, Mt Hagen, Ialibu, Mendi and Wabag. 

ESP Governor, Allan Bird presented the cheque to PPL Acting Chief Executive Officer, Obed Batia recently, the money will help revive PPL’s 2.5 medium speed generation in Wewak.

Mr Batia thanked Governor Bird in agreeing to invest in the purchase of machines that will ensure better distribution of power supply throughout Wewak.

The total load for Wewak is about 4.5megawatts, and are currently short with almost 1megawatt as they only have 3.5megawatts available and load shedding is almost about 700kw.

An explanation has been given for the continuous power outage in the city, and it seems it all has to do with infrastructure needing an upgrade.

State Enterprises Minister William Duma said nearly all transmission lines in the grid and the equipment from the sub-stations are old and require replacements.

Power supply to customers on the Konedobu and Kanudi Substation feeders will continue to be affected during this time, due to multiple fallen high voltage power lines and faults at the substations.

PNG Power reported that Konedobu Feeder 5 conductors fell onto Konedobu Feeder 2 lines which caused the Konedobu substation to trip off. Checks revealed that all protection relays were burnt as a result of the power surge from the broken conductors clashing.

The K50 million (AUD19million) upgrades will support work to improve, restructure and transition grids in Buka and Arawa to renewable energy.

In a statement, Jon Philip said, “The upgrades are designed to connect businesses and communities to reliable, affordable and renewable electricity, as well as providing long-term capacity solutions and reducing operating costs.”

The upgrades to Buka and Arawa grids will connect neighboring areas to have access to more reliable electricity.